Information security tips and tricks for both home and business users

How Much Does @Google Know About Me?

I’ll let you guys debate whether Google is good or evil to your hearts’ content. Heck, I’ll even let you make the case that Google is God. I’m just here to state some facts.

If you have a Google account, then Google may be storing information about you in twenty-seven (27) different apps/products.

27. Seriously.

Don’t believe me, check out the list at the end of this blog.

If you use Google products as much as I do, then you may already realize how helpful Google can be. Me? I’m married with children. I lean pretty heavily on Google to help me remember who needs to be where, when they need to be there, and how I’m supposed to get from here to there. As an Android tablet user, I also find Google Play pretty handy.

But that convenience comes with a price. Here are a couple of things that you may not have realized Google knows about you:

Android – Google knows what kind of Android device you use. More importantly, it knows what data you’ve backed up from the device to Google servers. (Do you know which of your apps are backing up to Google? Do you know what data they’re including in those backups?)

FBI and NSA aside, what about criminals? You know, the bad guys who want to steal information from you that they can make a few bucks by selling that data on the online black market.

If one of these criminals gets your Google password, they can simply go to the Google Takeout and download all of your Google data in one zip file. The best part? You won’t even know they did it until you see charges for beer and cigarettes on your credit card one Sunday morning from half a world away.

So what should you do? What can you do? Easy.

If there’s any data Google has about you that you don’t want them to have, go to Google Dashboard and delete it.